1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the art of composite label webs and the method of making and using same.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
It is known in the prior art to use the same hand-held labeler to dispense labels of different widths. This is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,191,608 to Bussard and Jenkins granted Mar. 4, 1980. It is also known to design hand-held labelers in such a way that a labeler can, with slight modification, be made to dispense labels of different widths. Thus, two or more labelers can be constructed using many common parts and relatively few different parts to accommodate labels with different widths. Such labelers are typically manually operated to print a label and store energy in a return spring and thereafter the return spring causes a driver to advance the carrier web to dispense a label at a delaminator. The stronger the return spring, the greater the manual force required to actuate the labeler. There is more drag in a labeler that has to dispense a wide label having a continuous coating than in a labeler that has to dispense a narrow label having a continuous coating of the same thickness mainly because the force required to strip or delaminate such wide labels from a carrier web is greater than the force required to strip or delaminate such narrow labels from a carrier web. Therefore, a labeler that is used to dispense both wide and narrow labels must have a return spring strong enough to dispense the widest labels, and as such the return spring is greater than would be required if the labeler were only required to dispense narrow labels.
Prior art U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,095,437 to Fox granted Oct. 12, 1937, 2,303,346 to Flood granted Dec. 1, 1942, and 2,636,297 to Johnson granted Apr. 28, 1953 each disclose composite label webs having a pattern coating of pressure sensitive adhesive in which the adhesive coating patterns have a definite relationship or registry to the side edges of the label. Although the above Fox and Johnson patents have feed cuts in the form of holes formed between the side edges of the composite label web, the feed cuts can also take the form of slits or knife cuts as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,783,083 to Jenkins granted Jan. 1, 1974. In the Fox and Johnson patents, when laminating the label material web to the carrier web care must be taken to assure that the adhesive coating pattern is in proper registry with the feed cuts.